In brief
- Toncoin was recently up nearly 12%.
- TON is the native token of The Open Network, which Telegram helped create in 2018.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Telegram was looking to raise $1.5 billion through a bond issuance, and separately, Telegram said it had struck a $300 million deal with Elon Musk’s xAI.
The Open Network’s Toncoin was up nearly 12% on Wednesday amid a report that its affiliated messaging platform Telegram is reportedly eyeing a $1.5 billion raise, and an announcement that the firm had struck a $300 million deal with Elon Musk’s xAI—though that deal appears to not yet be finalized.
The native token of the Telegram-affiliated The Open Network, the 18th largest crypto by market value, was trading at $3.37, CoinGecko data shows. TON soared to almost $3.70 and was up about 23% at one point earlier in the morning.
Telegram’s fortunes, which have risen in recent months, continued to swing upward on Wednesday. The company is preparing to raise $1.5 billion in a corporate-bond sale, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing several sources familiar with the company’s plans.
The messaging platform will issue five-year bonds offering a 9% yield—a raise that has invited interest from Emirati-owned investment firm Mubadala, BlackRock, and hedge-fund manager Citadel, according to The Journal.
Telegram has shared with investors that it clocked $540 million in profits on $1.4 billion in revenue in 2024, people familiar with the matter told the publication—a major rebound from its lackluster performance the year prior. The app boasted one billion active users as of March 2025, according to Telegram’s executives, and enrollment in its subscription services has roughly doubled over the past year or so.
Separately, Telegram will deploy AI-powered chatbot Grok to its growing platform under the terms of a one-year agreement with Elon Musk’s xAI, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Wednesday in a social media post. Telegram will receive half of xAI’s subscription sales made through the messaging platform, Durov tweeted.
Later in the day, however, Musk pushed back on the announcement, replying on X hat “No deal has been signed.” Durov replied, “True. Agreed in principle, but formalities are pending.” The price of TON dipped following the exchange.
Durov is still facing criminal charges in France related to alleged illegal activities hosted on Telegram, leaving the application’s future somewhat uncertain.
French authorities arrested Durov in August, alleging Telegram facilitated terrorism and drug trafficking enterprises, among other nefarious activities, on its platform. And earlier this month, authorities declined the founder’s appeal to travel to the U.S. for “negotiations with investment funds,” POLITICO reported.
Telegram created TON in 2018, but distanced itself from the network just two years later as it faced regulatory scrutiny over its role in the project. However, the messaging application began flirting with TON nearly two years later, hosting the TON Wallet App and tap-to-earn games in its application.
The latter initiative helped TON garner widespread recognition last year, as viral tap-to-earn games such as Catizen and Hamster Kombat amassed hundreds of millions of players on Telegram.
Edited by James Rubin
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include the X exchange between Elon Musk and Pavel Durov, and impact on TON’s price.
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